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If you recently returned from vacation, you may be about to face a day of reckoning: the day your credit card bill arrives.

Until then you might have been reminiscing about what a great time you had, and posting photos to your friends on Facebook. Getting that monthly statement is a crash landing back on earth. The tally is a cruel reminder of how much those memories cost you.

If you were traveling overseas, you realize, for example, that the pretty ordinary steak frites dinner for the family that cost 70 euros in Paris actually set you back almost $90. And oh yes, most card companies have foreign transaction fees--typically 2.7% of the converted dollar amount of the foreign currency charge. So if you charged those steak frites, add another $2.43 ($90 times 2.7%) to the tab.

It's tempting to go on a spending binge while you're on vacation. Commercials encourage it, and leaving behind the constraints of a budget can be good for the soul now and then. But if you're paying the price of that now, you might want to get sober about plastic. The following steps can help you take a sensible route back to reality and reduce what you spend next time.

Check charges carefully. The more you use your card, the more it seems to increase the risk of it being “compromised”— card company lingo for an unauthorized use. If you don't recognize any charges on your latest statement, notify your card company immediately by telephone. They will ask you to fill out a form and while they are investigating the matter will remove the charge from your statement.

Look for finance charges. If in your haste to leave on vacation, you didn't pay your last credit card bill, or if you are late with the last payment (say because the bill was part of the mail you had held during your vacation), call the credit card company and explain this. If you have a good credit rating and a history of paying past bills with the company on time, they may be willing to remove the finance charges if you immediately pay the latest bill in full.

Pay the full balance if you can. Without credit, few of us would have access to an education, a home or even a car. But credit card debt is the worst kind because interest rates are so high (between 7 and 36%) and because finance charges compound. So paying off this debt is a great investment. Think of it this way: When you’ve paid down a dollar of debt, that’s a dollar you no longer owe. When you invest a dollar, you can’t be sure whether it will grow or shrink.

When in debt, pay big balances first. A new study by a team of researchers at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management suggests that people with debt on multiple credit cards are more likely to pay down their entire debt if they focus on paying off cards with the smallest balances first. But from a personal finance perspective, this is an awful strategy because of the interest compounding on the balances.

Reduce the number of your credit cards. Card companies tempt us with a variety of offers--like frequent flyer mile bonuses of 25,000 or more if you sign up for a new card and spend a minimum amount on it within a preset time. These cards can be a great way to replenish your stash of frequent flyer miles. But once you've done that, consider canceling the card, especially once the annual fee kicks in (many of these offers waive the fee for the first year).

Pay more in cash next time. One benefit of paying cash overseas is that you avoid foreign transaction fees. Card companies make the selling point that you're better off paying these fees than paying currency exchange charges to get the cash to pay for your overseas purchases. But there's a way around this: Open an account at a U.S. bank that does not charge for currency conversion and that does not charge an international ATM withdrawal fee either. (TD Bank, for example, doesn't charge either). Then use an ATM card from that bank to withdraw money as you need it overseas; ATM machines are now prevalent around the world.

Sure, you could also shop for a credit card that doesn't charge a foreign transaction fee. (The Web site NerdWallet has compiled a list of them.) That's fine as a backup. But reducing your use of credit cards on vacation--and other times, too--is a great way to stop yourself from binging and avoid the burden of post-vacation credit card bills.

If you're concerned about not having enough money to pay the next vacation's expenses, start saving now in a special account. (For relatively painless (or even pleasurable) ways to be fabulously frugal and grow that vacation kitty, see my post, "You Can Get Rich Pinching Pennies Like Warren Buffett.") Every penny that you don’t spend unnecessarily the rest of the year leaves more for your next vacation.